Ministry of Health (Ontario)


The Ministry of Health is the Government of Ontario ministry responsible for administering the health care system and providing related services in the Canadian province of Ontario. Christine Elliott has been the Minister of Health since June 29, 2018.

Services and programs

The Ministry also regulates hospitals, operates some medical laboratories and regulates others, and co-ordinates emergency medical services for the province.
The Ministry once operated ambulance services outside of major cities in Ontario, but the services were off-loaded to municipalities around 1998.

History

In the early years of Canadian Confederation, health was still considered primarily a municipal rather than provincial matter. The Public Health Act of 1873 permitted the Lieutenant Governor to establish, by proclamation, a temporary "Central Board of Health" to deal with disease if it reached epidemic proportions. However, no proclamations were ever made, and a Central Board was never established.
The Provincial Board of Health was established on March 10, 1882, and it was charged with overseeing the many local health boards. It also assumed the responsibility of dealing with an epidemic, if one should arise. The board reported to the Lieutenant Governor, to the Provincial Secretary, then to the Department of Labour.
In 1924, the Provincial Board of Health was replaced by the Department of Health. In 1930, the department accepted from the Department of the Provincial Secretary the responsibilities for administering Ontario's psychiatric hospitals and inspecting the province's public and private hospitals. Also in 1930, the Department of Hospitals was established under the direction of the first Minister of Health; that department became a division of the Department of Health in 1934. In 1952, cancer research and the operation of cancer clinics was added to the department's responsibilities. Insured hospital services and insured physicians' services, introduced in 1959 and 1966 respectively, were combined under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan in 1972. The department also had responsibility over areas that are no longer associated with health, such as water and sewage functions, mental retardation facilities and children's services, and occupational health.
In 1961, the Royal Commission on Health Services, chaired by Justice Emmett Matthew Hall, was appointed, which served as a catalyst for a major overhaul of the department.
In 1972, the Department of Health was renamed the Ministry of Health in a government-wide restructuring. In 1999, the Ministry of Health was renamed the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. On June 20, 2019, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care was split into the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Long-Term Care.

List of Ministers